Karthus

By therealmancloud

12/2/2013 2:47:19 AM

0

This Build Guide is for Karthus being played in Mid Lane. This guide shows how Karthus can be played as an AP Hypercarry who can farm safely while pressuring other lanes with his ultimate and become a teamfight monster who deals a lot of AOE damage. The author is mancloud, the mid laner for Curse Academy.

Hey if you look on the build u wrote vs tanks on the wrong items and vs squishies on the wrong one. vs squishies u need athenes since they do a lot of dmg. vs tanks you need void staff to break through their defences. I think you should fix it asap because a lot of players will be building the wrong item and not experiencing karthus as they should ( he is my favourite champ and I love your guide btw)

This is so outdated, you cannot stack 3 archangel's staves like that now, and furor is not compatible with Lay Waste, because lay waste is not a single target spell and actually is AOE. Furor will not work. And build is wrong. Stack lots of cooldown reduction and AP/HP/Mana. Have clarity as summoner spell, and build Tear Of The Goddess too. The writer is a crook and a noob, he doesn't know Karthus.

Oh and, Rylai is wildly unnecessary because you are paying for the slow effect for nothing. Karthus' Wall Of Pain is an enough skill to slow enemies and you are basicly paying extra slow effect for Rylai, which is unnecessary.

Wow. You're saying "Rylais is wildly unnecessary for the slow effect" yet you build an iceborn gauntlet? What the f***? Secondly, Deathfire Grasp is good for burst champions. Karthus isn't meant to be a burst champion, so why woould you bother. You went for so much CDR, that most of the CDR off blue buff is wasted, and an elixir is pointless. As for your point about "Rylai's is actually unnecessary" that may be true in some cases if you can go full on offensive. If you want to save your wall as defense, then having that extra slow is very nice when you can stack it repeatedly with Q. Meanwhile YOUR build insists that we be in auto attack range to apply that iceborn gauntlet slow, which has none of the stats that Karthus can even utilize except for mana and cooldown reduction (which btw is going to be redundant later anyways). Please go back to trying to get past Bronze V, because if you seriously build Karthus like that, you're a scrub.

This is ridiculous... I've been on 3 different websites on builds for Karthas but you guys overlook certain things. Heres my 2 builds: one for damage other for damage and health sustain. Seraph's Embrace, Liandry's Torment, Rylais Crystal Scepter, Void Staff, Rabadan's Deathcap, Zhonya's Hourglass. ...OR... Seraph's Embrace, Void Staff, Rabadan's Deathcap, Zhonya's Hourglass, Deathfire Grasp, Will of the Ancients. ( High spell damage, high healing per spell... Especially for R and spamming Q so health is made up for)

Guides are just that. Guides. They are not the end all and it would be impossible to give you a build for every situation and teamcomp you could possibly ever want to use a champion in or every teamcomp you would ever want to devise.

Could you use Seraph's on Karthus? Absolutely. But it's a build that is riskier than a RoA build and has a longer build up time. You also suggest a build that is quite possibly one of the most expensive builds and takes an extremely long time before you get any level of power (Liandry + Rylai + Seraph). So you're making very little impact early to mid game because you're just sitting there trying to farm and charge up your tear. There's a reason it's not in the guide because your suggestion is stupid and doesn't understand the purpose of Karthus. Sure, if you want to afk farm and somehow convinced the opposing team to not do anything also for the first 30 minutes, knock yourself out.

BTW i wouldn't suggest going RoA AND Seraphs embrace. Karthus isn't Ryze...he doesn't need 3400 mana. You do get +96 ability power from stacking RoA with Seraphs (154 AP for 1 item) and an 850 hp (max) shield, but the permanent 35% slow and 138 AP (60+78) is more useful. I guess if you're intent on *diving*, then RoA, Seraphs+Dcap/Void will do a lot of damage. But again--the longer you survive in fights WITHOUT dying, the more damage you will do.

I honeslty think that, ever since the spell pen changes made %pen come before flat pen (very important change) and the new items, that RoA is simply not as useful overall nor as cost effective for the utility it gives. Haunting Guise is very strong on almost all AP carries now, and helps Karthus hit like a truck, even more so if you use spellpen blue runes as well as reds, and instead of RoA, you should rush tear, then Rylais, and then depending on team comp, either complete the AA staff into Seraph's embrace (650'ish HP shield if you have full mana) or rush Zhonyas (only if you REALLY need the armor, as completing the AA staff is 2000 vs Zhonyas from scratch is 3300 (?). You'll usually want to complete the zhonyas first if you started armbands e.g. Karthus Top or mid vs Bruisers, or if you're in danger of being instagibbed and the serpahs not being strong enough.

I know Scarra feels Rylais is somewhat questionable, but there are some very important things to consider here.

1) You can't always rely on your wall being available as a CC as it has a 17 sec CD without CDR.

2) enemies and gap closers can jump over it, then you're forced to engage.

Instead of RoA Dcap Void Zhonyas, a Diamond 1 player (Russl) prefers a core build usually consisting of this:

Rylais, Seraphs Embrace, Zhonyas (unless going tele revive zombie karthus, since Zhonyas is less useful if you don't have flash, then deathcap/hextech is an option), Liandry's Torment (a natural Rylais pair), Void staff, Sorc/Homeguards. This is even more attractive since Zhonyas now gives 120 AP and Serpahs Embrace gives around 136 AP AND a shield, thus giving you TWO shields. Deathcap gives you 120 AP+30% but 30% doesn't scale well early game, so putting all that money into an early deathcap when you can have a far more useful Zhonyas Seraphs makes a lot more sense.

This build basically allows Karthus to simply destroy what are usually some brutal matchups, and allows him to control where engagements take place and a permanent, spammable 35% slow can kite an entire team. Champions like Singed, Voli and many other tanks/bruisers basically get countered, and many matchups become much easier for both you and your team to handle.

Also, a void staff will hit -harder- than a deathcap if they have 80 MR (spell penetration and the AP), and if you use spellpen reds and blues, you will do true damage to anyone with 80 MR or lower. Do not underestimate how important spell pen is! Void+flat spellpen (besides sorcs) didn't really work well in Season 2, but now with % coming BEFORE flat, its a strong combination.

Remember, the longer you survive in fights or pokes, the more damage you do, so having 600 AP and the ability to protect your AD carry and yourself a lot easier, is more important than having 750 AP and having to rely only on your wall.

Just remember not to rush Torment. Rush Guise then get your other high damage items and grab the Torment when they actually start stacking HP.

Try it....I've gotten some completely absurd scores with the Rylais/Seraphs combo, and even a nice recent Penta :)

RoA is still useful in some matchups where you feel you REALLY need the sustain and the hp all at once, and yes, you do get damage sooner, but you can always grab a chalice/grail if you really need the MR (maybe substituting guise, etc). I'm not saying it's a bad item...it isn't "bad"...but isnt having a PERMANENT 35% slow Q kiting skittles of death far more useful?

Roa is far superior then any item to start with.It actually the best.Sure you may get more utility from rylais but you will die to ganks more easily,you will be severly weak on your mana pool, and plus rylais doesnt help your farming and sustain.If you can get your rod before 13 minutes it better than most items that you can start with.Farming faster and longer and not dying>35 percent slow.